Girija Prasad Koirala, Former Nepal Premier, Dies at 86

By KIRAN CHAPAGAIN and JIM YARDLEY; Kiran Chapagain reported from Katmandu, Nepal, and Jim Yardley from New Delhi.

Published: March 22, 2010

CORRECTION APPENDED

KATMANDU, Nepal -- Girija Prasad Koirala, a former Nepalese prime minister and a pivotal figure in establishing Nepal's fragile democracy who also helped broker an end to the country's Maoist rebellion, died Saturday in Katmandu. He was 86.

Nepalese leaders, in announcing his death, declared Sunday, the day of his funeral, to be a national holiday, to allow public mourning of Mr. Koirala's death, and they also ordered that the national flag be flown at half-staff. Mr. Koirala died at the home of his daughter after being in frail health.

Mr. Koirala's death further complicates an already politically fraught situation in Nepal. The country's interim Constitution expires in late May. The Maoists, now a political party, are negotiating with other parties to formally complete the peace process, ending their 10-year rebellion while the parties also are writing a new Constitution that would restructure the national government.

Mr. Koirala, patriarch of the Nepali Congress Party and a symbol of the political establishment, had been leading a working group of top leaders from different parties, including the Maoists, to try to break a political impasse in the negotiations. His death raises questions about the shape and fate of the continuing talks.

''Mr. Koirala's death is a huge loss for Nepal and its ongoing peace process,'' a spokesman for the United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, said in a statement.

Mr. Koirala served five times as Nepal's prime minister, eliciting both praise and criticism, leading 5 of the country's 18 governments since democracy was established in 1991. He was elected as prime minister the same year and had a rocky tenure, facing accusations of corruption, nepotism and mismanagement.

But his mark on Nepal's politics was formidable, and he would become a respected statesman. He helped broker the peace deal with the Maoists in 2006 that ended a decade of bloodshed, an agreement that brought together the Maoists and the democratic political parties to ultimately depose Nepal's monarchy and establish the country as a republic.

On Saturday, leaders from different sides of the political spectrum praised Mr. Koirala, even as they bemoaned his absence in the current talks. Dr. Ram Sharan Mahat, leader of the Nepali Congress Party, declared that Mr. Koirala's death had ''created a vacuum in Nepali politics. Now the authority is gone.''

Pushpa Kamal Dahal, also known as Prachanda, the leader of the Maoists, described Mr. Koirala as ''a towering figure of Nepal's democratic movement, one of the architect's of Nepal's historic peace and Constitution-writing process.''

Mr. Koirala was born in 1925 into a political family in Biratnagar, Nepal's second largest city. His two brothers were prime ministers. Inspired by his elder brother, B. P. Koirala, a major democratic leader who founded the Nepali Congress Party, Mr. Koirala started his political career working in the trade union movement in his hometown.

PHOTOS: Girija Prasad Koirala in 2006. His funeral procession on Sunday, right, in Katmandu, Nepal, followed a ceremony at a stadium where thousands lined up to pay respects. (PHOTOGRAPHS BY BINOD JOSHI/ASSOCIATED PRESS)

Correction: March 26, 2010, Friday
An obituary and a headline on Monday about the former Nepalese prime minister Girija Prasad Koirala misstated his age, and the obituary misidentified his place of birth. Mr. Koirala was 85, not 86, and he was born in the state of Bihar, India -- not in Biratnagar, Nepal. (As the obituary noted, Mr. Koirala was born in 1925, but he was considered to be 86 in Nepal, where by custom people are regarded as 1 year old at birth.)